Immortality and Cultivation: This old man seeks enlightenment through mere survival.

Keep these treasures safe.

Lu Zaian can finally find some peace and quiet.

The chaos in Huangze City was, in essence, a power struggle between three forces at the Core Formation stage: the Ji City Lord's lineage, the Tianming Palace, and the Huang family.

Lu Zaian finally understood.

It's merely a contest between those who have reached the Core Formation stage.

Countless cultivators in Huangze City were caught in the crossfire and died.

If one fails to achieve the Core Formation stage, one is ultimately just a pawn that others don't care about living or dying.

The spiritual vein in this valley is only of the first-grade low level, and the spiritual energy is sparse.

Its advantage lies in its secluded and quiet location, where few cultivators usually pass by.

Lu Zaian decided to cultivate here for a few years.

Let's wait until the dust settles down before making any decisions.

Although the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is scarce in the valley.

But Lu Zaian has plenty of spirit stones now.

The total number of low-grade spirit stones in his storage bag was close to 190,000.

There are also about three hundred mid-grade spirit stones.

Absorbing spirit stones for cultivation is a bit of a luxury.

But for safety reasons, this is the only way.

.........

And so, Lu Zaian set up a hidden second-tier mid-grade formation in the valley.

Start practicing.

As for the Nine Netherworld Avatar, its Qi refining speed is too slow due to its low-grade spiritual root.

Lu Zaian also gave the Blood Spirit Pearl to his clone first, so that he could use it to refine his body.

While his clone held off the beast tide for two days, he still managed to obtain quite a bit of demon beast essence and blood.

Now that the Blood Spirit Pearl has been purified and refined into the power of blood and qi, it is perfect for body tempering.

Moreover, Lu Zaian discovered a wonderful detail.

Although the clone cannot share Xiao Yi's Qi Refining Talent and Comprehension Talent.

But he can share the memories of his original self.

In other words, as long as the original body learns it.

He also learned how to create clones.

I may not know your problem-solving approach, but I can just copy your answer.

This also saved Lu Zaian most of his time.

For example, he spent half a year learning the first-tier low-grade weapon refining technique.

He then handed over the task of refining the weapon to his clone.

The clone gains weapon-refining experience through extensive practice.

Then it feeds back to the main body.

This will promote the development of weapon crafting techniques.

Unfortunately, alchemy cannot do that.

Because the body's alchemy skills are at the second-tier, low-grade level.

The clone's soul strength is not yet sufficient; alchemy still relies heavily on the assistance of divine sense.

Even if a clone could be created with difficulty, it would greatly increase the cost.

Originally, each batch of the main body could produce ten pills, and even produce pill patterns.

If it were a clone, it might only be able to produce a few...

Even so, the clone's abilities far exceeded Lu Zaian's original expectations.

It saved him a lot of trouble.

.........

There is no time in the mountains.

Lu Zaian, an immortal being, focused on his cultivation and paid even less attention to the passage of time.

Three years have passed in the blink of an eye.

"Click..."

A soft sound of stone shattering rang out.

Lu Zaian raised an eyebrow and slowly opened his eyes.

He sat cross-legged, looking at the powder around him that had been drained of its spiritual energy and turned to ashes, and couldn't help but sigh softly.

"Sigh...it's really too wasteful. Ten thousand spirit stones were squandered in just three years."

This is the price of not cultivating in the land of spiritual veins...

As soon as he finished speaking, Lu Zaian stood up and flicked his sleeve, scattering the powder throughout the world.

Originally, for his Foundation Establishment cultivation level, at least a second-tier spiritual vein's spiritual energy concentration was needed for him to cultivate.

But this valley contains only a low-grade first-order spiritual vein.

Therefore, Lu Zaian used the Spirit Gathering Array to absorb a large number of low-grade spirit stones to simulate the spiritual energy concentration of a second-tier spiritual vein.

Only in this way can his skills improve and his liquid magic power gradually increase.

However, this also results in a terrifying rate of spirit stone consumption.

In just three years, 100,000 spirit stones were burned.

This illustrates the difficulties faced by cultivators in their practice...

If you can't find a high-level spiritual vein, relying solely on spirit stones for cultivation will be a huge waste.

Because spirit stones are not only used for cultivation, but also the common currency in the cultivation world.

If ordinary cultivators absorbed all of it themselves, how would they buy pills and magic weapons?

Perhaps only Lu Zai'an, with his long life, would dare to burn it like that.

However, it wasn't all for nothing; those three years of hiding weren't wasted.

With the addition of second-tier pills, Lu Zaian's liquid mana increased by a total of 20 drops over the past three years.

On average, about 7 drops a year.

It's still a bit lacking compared to the 10 drops of pills one takes to cultivate in the Wasteland City over a year.

After all, it's a third-tier spiritual vein.

There are currently 180 drops of liquid mana in Lu's Dantian Qi Sea.

We're getting closer and closer to the mid-stage threshold of 200 drops for foundation building.

However, he cultivates the "Boundless Ocean Scripture," which is different from ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators.

It can expand the dantian and qi sea.

This also means that 200 drops is not the limit for Lu Zai'an in the early stages of foundation building.

He wanted to break through the bottleneck of the mid-stage Foundation Establishment, conservatively aiming for 300 drops.

However, the combat power gained in return is also formidable.

buzzing~~

Suddenly, the sound of an array opening and closing rang out from outside.

It was Jiuyou's clone who walked in from outside.

The moment the clone entered, he burst into laughter.

"Haha, I disguised myself as a minor Qi Refining cultivator and went to the Desolate Marsh City to investigate. Everything has been settled."

These transformations have drained a lot of my essence; you have to replenish it for me…”

Upon hearing this, Lu Zaian's expression shifted.

He shared memories with his clone and instantly read the clone's experiences.

"Oh? Well, well, so the chaos in Huangze City has finally come to an end..."

It turns out that during his seclusion, in order to obtain information from the outside world, he would occasionally send out his clones to investigate.

Even clones can perform the transformation of immortality.

It will continuously consume life force and soul force, commonly known as primordial force.

After prolonged use, the main body still needs to transfer its essence to the clone in order to recover...

Recently, the clone has returned to the Wasteland City.

The city was already bustling with activity and crowds of people.

There was no trace of the great battle of the past.

According to information gathered by the clone.

The great battle three years ago was a fierce contest between Core Formation forces.

Half of the desolate city was destroyed, affecting countless cultivators.

Fifteen Foundation Establishment cultivators died from the City Lord's Mansion alone!

The majority of these are still foundation building and offerings.

So this opportunity isn't so easy to come by...

It is said that eating people is short-tongued and taking advantage of others is soft-handed.

Enjoy a free cave dwelling with exclusive internal resources?

Do you really think that the position of worship is just a source of benefits?

That requires making a vow against one's inner demons and signing a contract to bind oneself.

Do you want to betray your allies and back out when the big battle comes?

late.

So Lu Zaian had foresight.

I'll make a fair deal with you.

I'll pay whatever spirit stones it costs to rent the cave dwelling, and I don't care about the benefits inside.

When disaster strikes, don't blame me for not helping you run away.

Aside from those who managed to escape quickly, several Foundation Establishment cultivators in the city also perished.

Some people go to participate in the three-way power struggle, hoping to join in the fun and get something for nothing.

After all, it's about both defending and attacking a city.

Ultimately, as long as you successfully choose a side, you will benefit greatly.

They may have overestimated their abilities, ultimately leading to their deaths and the demise of their spirits...

Some, like Lu Zaian, were ambushed and killed by other Foundation Establishment cultivators.

After all, if the rules of the Desolate City are disrupted, every rogue cultivator could end up wearing a hood and becoming a Tribulation Cultivator.

Since they lacked Lu Zaian's abilities, they were left with nothing but loss and ruin...